Samsung's Dolby Atmos Soundbars Just Got Even Better

If you’re looking for a convenient, space-saving way to add Dolby Atmos audio to your home entertainment system, you’ll be hard-pushed to find anything better than Samsung’s HW-K850 and especially HW-K950 soundbar packages.

These include a multi-channel soundbar that includes angled up-firing speakers to deliver the Dolby Atmos height effect; a meaty subwoofer; and, in the K950’s case, a pair of compact but incredibly powerful rear speakers which again feature up-firing drivers to complete the trademark Dolby Atmos ‘bubble’ of sound.

While the K850 and K950 set new standards for the soundbar market when they launched back in late 2016, though, they have until now been plagued by one seriously frustrating draw back: They only play DTS audio in stereo.

Samsung's K950 represents the state of the art in the soundbar world - especially now it likes DTS too.Photo: Samsung

Yep, so obsessed was Samsung with working with Dolby to get Atmos right that it apparently forgot that actually the majority of Blu-ray discs - as many as two thirds to three quarters, if my own disc collection is anything to go by - use multi-channel DTS mixes as their lead audio tracks rather than Dolby mixes. And even the provision of a ‘pseudo-surround’ processing mode for the DTS inputs did little to disguise the huge step-down in sound quality you had to suffer when moving from multi-channel Dolby to stereo DTS.

Happily Samsung has finally responded to this frankly pretty daft situation by rolling out a firmware update to the K850 and K950 that enables them to play DTS mixes in true 5.1-channel audio.

Firmware update 3113 should arrive on your K850 or K950 soundbar automatically if you’ve already got it registered on your Wi-Fi system. You can check it’s there by downloading the Samsung Multiroom app for iOS and Android, adding your soundbar to its speaker registry, and then choosing the Software Update option from the app’s settings menu.

I’ve got the update running on my test K950 and can confirm that it works flawlessly and completely transforms the DTS listening experience. No longer does seeing the words ‘DTS Master Audio’ on the back of a Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray box have to cause your heart to sink.

In an ideal world Samsung will one day extend the DTS support to encompass the Atmos-like DTS:X platform. Even as it stands, though, the new DTS update turns what were already outstanding home cinema audio solutions from Samsung into genuine trailblazers.

I've spent the past 20 years writing about the world of home entertainment technology--first at Home Cinema Choice magazine, where I became Deputy Editor, and for the past 17 years on a freelance basis. In that time I'm fairly confident that I've reviewed more TVs and projec...